Twisted Indifference

From graffiti to flames to the downright eye-poppers; the artists had managed to create them all. Having spent a considerable amount of time as a photographer for an automotive magazine in India, an intense love affair with cars tricked out in custom paint jobs is inevitable. Of course covering an every inch of an Ambassador in white fur might be overkill. Even the interiors weren’t spared.

The graffiti art was on a Maruti Suzuki Swift. This car without the custom paint job can makes me want to get in behind the wheel and floor the throttle. Especially the diesel version. The throttle response is brilliant. But then this blog is about photography not cars.

The Royal Enfield, a motorcycle owned by those who dare to be different (and also love pushing the bike to the nearest garage at frequent intervals.) This bike has an undying affinity towards proving Murphy right. Given the new technological breakthroughs that the company has now adopted I guess things should be different.

Flames were largely popular with the Yamaha RX series in its heyday. So putting solid colours on a bike that is coveted for its acres of chrome is I guess keeping with what the bike stands for. Being different.

I just might be prejudiced in my opinion of the art work on the Swift. Apart from the fact that he used a car I really like, the canvas (body) is my favourite colour. Black. Narcisstic, the way the artist’s name is emblazoned on the car panels but it is acceptable. I am the last one who should point out to people marking their territory as far as their creations are concerned. I cannot really use protection of my intellectual property as an excuse.

Now we come to the reason why I spent almost an entire day working on this post. I was saving the best for the last. I do not claim to be any kind of expert with Photoshop. Whatever I do know about it is through watching a colleague of mine. He is a graphic designer and we worked together briefly. That and a little credit to online tutorials. I, however, do know what different techniques were applied when shooting on film. The one emulated here in photoshop is called cross processing. In photoshop, cross processing is done using the Curves function. Stick to non-destructive editing and use a Curves layer. Makes life much simpler. Adobe has certainly made mine easier by adding the Cross Processing action as a Preset.

All I had to do after selecting it from a drop down menu was to apply a little fine tuning. In this photo and in the photo that is used as the opening image in this post, the Dodge and Burn tool have been my best friends. I wish I could have taken a better angle for the car, I would love to do something similar maybe with a wide angle, taking in the rear three quarters of the car with the Gothic Revival Buildings in the background and then apply a similar effect. I think I will take someone along with me who has a thorough knowledge of the buildings and the architectural style.

This should do it for Art in the Financial Capital. Bid adieu to the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, let’s hope I can spend more time there the next time. The next few posts will be about the photos from the Auto Expo 2008 again. I am going to try and put up as much of it as I can by the week-end since I would like to start with something new next week.